Remy's day off
by TCTW
Summary: A simple story about that one time Remy got a day off from the restaurant.
1. Chapter 1

Paris is a beautiful city. Me, not so much, mostly because I am not a city. But I'm not beautiful either. You see, I'm a rat. My name is Remy. And as weird as it sounds, I work in one of the finest restaurants in Paris. You may have heard of Auguste Gusteau, best cook ever and all... No? Well, he is the founder of this restaurant. But he died before I even got the chance to work here. That was one of the saddest days of my life.

Anyway, I work paired with this young man Lunguini. He is a little... hm... terrible at cooking by himself, so I have been helping him by controlling his cooking skills with his hair. To date, I still ask myself how is that supposed to be possible, but that doesn't really matter as long as it works, right?

What I would like to tell you about is something that happened couple of weeks ago, on my day off, I guess. (Linguini had a day off, so technically...) It started as a casual Saturday morning. I was walking right by the river Seine, with not too many people noticing me. Those who did, were mostly avoiding me. Few tried to hit me so that I would fall into Seine and drown myself. Ha, fail.

In time, I got on Pont des Arts bridge. (The one with all those padlocks, which fell apart.) I wanted to cross the bridge, but you know, humans were on the way. So I decided I'd rather not. Instead, I got up on the hilt and saw the most awesome panorama ever! I could even see the Eiffel tower from there. By this point, it was probably around 11:00 AM. It was somewhat cloudy.

Naturally, everyone around me was like: - Ew, a rat! - so they all ran away from me. But, someone hit me (accidentally) and I fell in Seine. That was not exactly non-painful, since the fall was from, I'd say, 20 meters of height!

I fell too deep into the water. I did almost drown myself! I took a really deep breath, but I felt like it wouldn't be enough. I was swimming towards the surface as fast as possible, and just as I was about to lose the breath, I got out. Good thing I was wrong about that breath.

So I was all wet, and I went climbing to the nearest concrete floor... and then someone grabbed my hand and pulled me over! And I just yelled: - Hey!

I hit the ground with my butt a little too hard.

\- Ow!

\- Sorry - said that who pulled me. So I opened my eyes widely to see who it was. It was a female rat. Much older than me, and brown. I did not recognize her from the rat clan I had been living in before going to that restaurant. She was looking at me kinda strangely, with a look that didn't seem very pleasing. At least not to me.

\- Are you okay? - she asked me.

\- Yes, thanks - I replied, to which she instantly continued:

\- I'm sorry, I couldn't just stand there and watch you suffering and do nothing.

\- Oh... - I muttered, still petrified from that near-death experience. - Thank you, then.

We looked each other in the eyes for a few seconds. It was awkward.

\- I am Ella - she introduced herself. So I went the same way:

\- Remy - and we shook hands.


	2. Chapter 2

So I started talking to this Ella, and, well, it turned out to be... interesting.

"So, Ella... where are you from?"

"Oh..." Ella suddenly lost the smile on her face. "I've been living all around France for the past... I don't even know how many years."

There was a brief moment of silence. Then she continued:

"I tried to find my friends. And my family. Anywhere they could have been. But they were nowhere to be found."

I felt somewhat of empathy. So I asked her:

"How did it happen?"

"What?"

"How did you even get lost?"

"I'd rather not talk about it..." and she turned her head on the other side.

I slowly approached her and stood right next to her. We were both looking at our shining reflections in Seine. Then, I turned my head towards her, put my hand on her shoulder and said:

"Oh, come on, it can't be that awful."

Then she looked at me, with a tear in her eye, and sighed. She started to tell me the story.

"My husband and I got into a fight. Over something most ridiculous. Our children's way of life. I told him that they were just little kids and that they can't think for themselves yet, but he wouldn't listen. So I got angry at him and ran away. From our whole clan. I went as far as possible (I even made it as far as Marseille). But, after some time, I started to miss him. And my children. Oh, dear, if only I knew what he did to my children. I tried to go back. I tried to find him again. But I just couldn't find him. Anywhere. So I stopped trying. Who knows what he would think if he saw me after all these years."

Ella closed her eyes and started to cry. Even I let out a tear.

I decided to ask her just one more thing.

"What was your husband's name?"

She kept looking in the water and told me:

"Django."

And then, I felt a little shocked, because Django is my dad's name! And you know what this means? Exactly, this Ella I was talking to was my mother!


	3. Chapter 3

I could not believe what I was just experiencing. I've never met my mom, I only knew dad and my older bother (Emile). But mom, I never knew. And now she was standing in front of me, talking to me, and probably unaware that she's talking to her son. So, when she said the name 'Django', I stood there dumbly and watched her stupidly. Then, after a silence conveniently short enough, I strangely said:

\- ...Django?

\- Yes - she replied. And then sighed. She looked away again and continued to speak: - But what I fear the most is what my children would think...

And there, I just _had to_ interrupt her.

\- Emile and Remy?

\- Yes - she said, and apparently she was totally confused by this. - How do you know?

\- How do you think I know? - I said, not even thinking for a second about whether what I said was right or not.

She looked at me, in confusion and pain at the same time, and I looked her straight in the eyes, trying to make her understand what I meant. And after really long fifteen seconds, she jumped back. I guess she understood, because next moment she said, in a voice of hope:

\- Remy?

For my whole life, I've been trying to make those around me happy, but also to make things right. And this was most certainly no exception. I asked this woman, seriously, but with a little fear inside my legs:

\- Are you my mom?

And despite the fact that it started to rain heavily, that one car got struck by a lightning, two people drowned, some others ran away from somewhere, and a boat broke down - despite all that, this Ella, apparently my mother, was looking at me carefully. At one moment she smiled. Next thing you know, she hugged me tightly. So then, it was all clear.

\- Oh, Remy, my dear little Remy, how I missed you so much... how much you've grown... you're so pretty... How are you?

She was smiling and she seemed happy, but me - not at all.

\- Good... great.

\- And how is your brother?

\- He's fine too... I guess...

I was somewhat devastated by the situation. I don't know why. It's just that... something didn't feel right. So I asked her something:

\- Why did you leave? - I know I had heard the answer just minutes before it, but I just... I just felt the urge to ask. And much to my surprise, she didn't get pissed off for she had just told me that, but she answered again. But this time, the response was different.

\- Your father didn't love me the way I am.

And there was silence afterwards. I didn't know what to say next, and as it seemed to me, neither did my mom. We now weren't looking each other in the eyes. The silence was really long. Not seemed, but really _was_ long.

...

After some time, she decided to break the silence.

\- And yet, have had two kids. Isn't it funny?

It wasn't funny at all. In fact, it was the most shocked and devastated and torn I have ever been in my life.

\- But why don't you come back? - I asked her, and she said:

\- Your father still wouldn't accept me. He doesn't like anything that's different. He just wants everything to be his way. I don't have the slightest intention of living with someone like that.

Another long silence.

\- Oh... - I said, not knowing really what to say.

\- I'm sorry, Remy - she said, and hugged me again and started to cry. - I'm really sorry.

And then she let go off me and went away.

And I never saw her again in my life.

To this day, I still wonder. I'm still confused by what happened that day. I'm a grown rat, with a job and everything, and only recently did I find out the truth about my mother. And it was disturbing. I'll never see her again. Should I tell someone about this? My chef? My dad? Brother? Anyone?! Better not. No one needs to know. Some things are better left untouched. This has also learnt me one more thing: to never take a day off again. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, but even on the most ordinary day, things can happen. What kind of things? Just... things.


End file.
